Should everyone grow their own food?

We too have been trying to raise as much of our own food as we can. We went in with some friends on a hog. It lives on their property,t hey care for it and we buy the food. At butcher time we will split the meat. We do not have the space for animals but we do have a garden. I canned a good amount of the veggies last year and hope to do the same this year. I also fruit scaped the yard so the new bushes we got and vines all produce fruit. This will be the first year so we won't get much this summer but hopefully next we will. We are a family of six what you pay a one month we pay a week and it is getting harder by the day.

I guess its the same situation everywhere, with me off the job now me and my husband have to pay a lot more than ever for the food. Also as my husband is a freelance artist, tehre is no fixed or steady income so I know how bad it must be for you all too. I wish I could grow our own food but then we do not have space as we live in a third floor flat. Although I do plant green peppers and tomatoes and some herbs like basil, lemon grass etc. in containers. But then it is so limited output that I have to buy everything from the outside. To add to the woes, the nexus of merchants and politicians is so bad that they create artificial shortages of many produces from time to time. A couple of months ago, ordinary everyday garlic and onions became so expensive that I stopped buying them for 3 months!

I thought that I couldn't really grow vegetables as I live in an apartment, I do have a few vases with herbs. Oregano, parsley, sage and mint among others. The thing is I have really small verandas but there are a number of videos online that deal with terrace gardens and how to grow your own vegetables that I may try out. Things like potatoes, corn etc are difficult or impossible to grow in this way but things like small peppers, cherry tomatoes and even strawberries(a friend has a few vases full of them)are possible. The added advantage is that it can be grown organically so not only are they fresh and cheaper they are also healthier. It does seem to be that everyone I know has a vegetable patch now.

When I was growing up on the farm during WW2 we raised most of our own food. We had a big garden filled with vegetables and fruits, and a root cellar to store the surplus over the winter. We raised chickens that laid eggs, pigs and cows that supplied milk and meat. We had a good life, and everyone worked hard on the farm. There was no electricity and the cows were milked by hand. We made our own butter and cheese, and mom baked bread. We are still living on the farm that Grandad bought in 1905, and we can do it all over again if the need is there!

There is nothing like being able to go out of your door and step into your garden and pick the vegetables and gather eggs that you need to make a nice home made meal. But of course in reality the rest you need still has to come from the market or the grocery store....Unless you plan to have your own slaughter house to kill your cow to get the beef or have your own pond to get your fish.

If you grow it yourself not only will you be saving money but you will know exactly where its coming from. Your garden!!

Not everyone has the means to grow their own food even if they wanted to. it certainly would cut back on food prices through. It is a practical idea to grow some of your own food if you can in this strugglig economy. Every little bit helps.

It is getting to be a bit ridiculous, I mean some things are on sale but that is only because the price went up and then the sale makes it look like it went down when in fact it is the higher price. We were kind of out of food Sunday and went to shop and the amount we spent and the little items we brought were outrageous. Seems like everything today has risen and salaries have been lowered. I wish I could grow my own too but not possible with our us being in an apartment now. Also it does take money to grow and take care of the vegetables when we first start out. It is just getting way too bad.

Prices of foods tend to go up when there are calamities that strikes our places. Understandably, that is so, because those produce that are hit by the calamity will take more time in order to be produced again. And because of the demand for food amidst the shortness of supply, the prices goes up. We all can grow our own produce but not all are blessed with lands where we could till them or the "green thumb" for them to grow well.

since i am the mother and the budget officer of the house, i definitely notice it. we do our grocery weekly and we spent almost $20 a week. so i decided to plant some handy vegetables in our garden. good thing i have a space to plant tomatoes, eggplant, onion, garlic and some citrus fruits. and we even have 10 chickens =)

I started to notice it since I got laid off from my job last month. Keeping food in the house is getting harder and I've been frequenting places like grocery outlet and the dollar tree more often. Produce is the real killer. As a kid you are encouraged to eat healthy and pack your diet full of fruits and veggies, but no one ever bothered to tell you it was going to cost an arm and a leg. If I had the resources I would not think twice about growing my own food.